Usually no armorer will hand a live gun to a felon. Those guys should have their felonies expunged or pardoned. But there are times when production companies actually 'break the law' Doh!

When Ironman was being filmed, there is a deleted scene where Tony Stark picked up an Air Force M4 and fires it over the hood of a Humvee at his attackers (and eventual kidnappers). The production wanted Robert Downey Jr. to handle the live gun, but the armorer (correctly) refused, being that Downey had not has his inability to handle a gun dismissed (on paper) yet. So the scene where he's firing, he's holding an airsoft gun.

Downey's felony convictions were in 1999 and he wasn't pardoned until December 24th, 2015. So technically any film he did between 1999 and 2015, the productions violated federal law if they handed him a live gun. Oops! But Hollywood productions are notoriously unconcerned with firearms laws. They just expect armorers to break the law, being that Hollywood bigwigs rarely if ever fights against gun control laws in California that actually HURT the film industry.

Wow. That surprises me.

For the record, some of his movies where he handles guns were not filmed in the U.S. But quite a few were.

I though guns that were permanently adapted for blanks weren't legally considered real firearms? I've seen numerous ads in gun magazines advertising blank guns for sale making that claim.

Concur with what MPM said: May be true for theatrical replicas, but sure not for a blank-adapted live firearm.

Also, try buying a deactivated or blank-adapted screen-used prop gun from PropStore (if you can afford it, since the screen-used/"hero" value adds serious $$$$$ to the price). Assuming it resides in their U.S. location, they will have to ship it to your FFL to complete the sale, because once it's a firearm, it's always a firearm.

Usually no armorer will hand a live gun to a felon. Those guys should have their felonies expunged or pardoned. But there are times when production companies actually 'break the law' Doh!

When Ironman was being filmed, there is a deleted scene where Tony Stark picked up an Air Force M4 and fires it over the hood of a Humvee at his attackers (and eventual kidnappers). The production wanted Robert Downey Jr. to handle the live gun, but the armorer (correctly) refused, being that Downey had not has his inability to handle a gun dismissed (on paper) yet. So the scene where he's firing, he's holding an airsoft gun.

Downey's felony convictions were in 1999 and he wasn't pardoned until December 24th, 2015. So technically any film he did between 1999 and 2015, the productions violated federal law if they handed him a live gun. Oops! But Hollywood productions are notoriously unconcerned with firearms laws. They just expect armorers to break the law, being that Hollywood bigwigs rarely if ever fights against gun control laws in California that actually HURT the film industry.

I was thinking about this a while back, specifically in regards to Danny Trejo since he's in a ton of movies in which he handles guns but is a felon